Ready or Not
by Coffee Craft
Summary: Brianna meets up with Drew after the Chrysanthemum Island contest. CS [Revised.]


**What prompted me to write this? I got sick of Brianna being the bitch of the Contestshipping fan base. I'm not fond of her, either (for other reasons), but I am appreciative of her, since she's the one who really brought Contestshipping to surface. All Soledad did was confirm that if May likes Drew, it is likely he'll return her feelings. She can't have all the credit.**

**Update: It just occurred to me that in Mademoisella's fic, "Love Unexpected", Brianna did something similar to this. Check it out! (I can't believe that slipped my mind...) No, I did not write this before her... I guess you can consider me an advocate for this cause. Stop the Brianna hate. You can hate her for reasons that don't concern CS, because hating her in the name of CS doesn't really make sense to me.**

**Disclaimer: Joining fanfiction establishes that no fandom I write for belongs to me.**

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She found Drew standing at the spot where he had earlier "met" her, Brianna, the "rookie coordinator", through May. The moon reflecting off the ocean at the darkest hour of the night gave an eerily calming atmosphere and a view he might be enjoying to himself. That is, until _she_ walked up behind him, ready to eat his face off for making her go through with this plan of his that jeopardized her image, or so that was what she told him. He'd better compensate for that later… somehow.

"Sorry I took so long."

Clearly, he was not impressed. He must have expected her to arrive ages ago. It wasn't her fault she was born a girl; it generally took longer for her to get ready, even if it was for a meeting that would probably last like, five minutes.

"No big deal. Hey, uh, thanks for covering me up about the whole rose and card thing. I didn't think you'd actually carry through with that."

Brianna waved him off. "Oh, it's no problem, but how do you forget to sign your name on a card you sent to the girl of your dreams? You're supposed to leave a good impression on her if you want to win her over, you know!"

"I did leave a good impression. At least she assumed it was me, and not some stalker. In fact, she even said she'd _love _to be in this contest with me and was disappointed to find out that I wasn't going to be in it. That also meant I was on her mind all this time. Now if that doesn't make a good impression…"

She giggled. "Watching you flip over her is so adorable. I was just pulling your leg. Calm down! It's really not a problem. Still, why ask me to cover it up for you? You already told her that you weren't going to enter the contest, so that dropped her suspicions that it was you who sent it. It sounds like you're happy that she thought it was you. Why cover it up?"

"Well… uh… you can never be too sure… so…" He lost his composure for a split second, and immediately shook it off. "Well, okay, I'll admit it: I was afraid. You don't see me making mistakes like that. It was a blessing that she wasn't bright enough to eh, really raise her suspicions any higher after you confirmed that it was you who sent the card. That's the problem I have with May sometimes, though. She'd fall for _anything_, and yet, she won't fall in love with me. What is up with that?"

Brianna had to hold back a smile. _So cute,_ she thought. _It's not every day you see a guy as famous as Drew get so girl crazy. Not to mention he's so protective of her… I'd love a guy who'd do that for me… _

"Oh, enough with the negativity! Isn't that what drives you to try harder? I don't remember you ever being this self-effacing. And when are you this open about it?"

"Right… Forget I said anything." Drew directed his gaze toward the starless sky. "Anything I should know?"

She tapped her finger against her chin, scrunching her eyebrows. Suddenly it came to her: their conversation before the battle rounds! She vaguely recalled May acting rather… odd when she posed the question as to whether or not she had feelings for Drew. Maybe that was something he wanted to know… It was all he could know. Nothing too informative or interesting stemmed from this, leaving her to, once again, wonder why she decided to help him out.

"Eh, well…" She went off, recounting that event.

"_I finally have a chance to show Drew that I'm a winner._"

"_Come on, May! It seems to me your feelings for Drew go way beyond contests and battling._"

"_Me and Drew? He's… just a rival…_"

"_Oh, yeah? Well, I want to know if you like Drew!_"

"_Like him? To tell you the truth, I never really given it that much thought…_"

"_Well, for your information, as soon as I win this, I'm telling Drew that I love him!_"

Heh. She found it cute that May saw everything that involved her and Drew's relationship as a rivalry… How oh so very naïve…

"You're… forward." This time he turned to her, and she only shrugged.

She then decided to briefly evaluate him with the little light the moon provided. His hair was neatly brushed back, and appeared to be slick and smooth. His eyes resembled her favorite pair of emerald earrings she kept in her jewelry box back at home, and the thought made her giggle: his eyes as two pieces of jewelry… He took little effort to look spiffy, but she didn't need to look at his appearance to tell that he really cared about it… With the world being as superficial as it was, he knew he would be judged on looks before personality.

Personality may have been what drawn him to May… Drew had never talked about how good she looked or whatever whenever he'd bring her up in their videophone conversations. Rather, he'd speak of her in a "May did this, May did that" fashion. He was… different. May was lucky to have him fawning over her, which made it urgent that May should realize her feelings for him soon. To have someone appreciate your personality over your looks was rare.

She realized she had not responded to him and came back to present-time.

"I had to be a convincing fan girl, which, by the way, comes with a price." She stretched out her hand. "Well?"

He pulled out his wallet. "How much do you want?"

Her eyes narrowed. "How much do you _have_?"

He dug through it. "About a thousand bucks…"

"Do you honestly believe that's going to compensate for having to pretend to be one of your rabid fans, not using my usual party Pokémon, and using your Pokémon's pre-evolutions instead? Not to mention all those hours I spent training them to get them up to her level for a competition I'm not a part of! And though whether I won or lost wasn't a big factor, I actually looked forward to winning to see if she would rage with jealousy after I blurted out my supposed undying love for you, the amazing Drew from La Rousse City, because she likes you, despite insisting otherwise."

Drew's expression remained stoic. That drove her _nuts_. He had better have processed everything she just said, because she still could not believe that she had held to this nonsense for his sake.

"It was better if you lost. There aren't many contests left before the Grand Festival, and she only has three ribbons," – she rose her hand to slap him, but he caught before it met his left cheek – "But not the point. How much do you want? Or what do you want? When is it convenient for you?"

"What I want in return is something money can't buy. Tell her how you feel, because she feels the same way. This is unhealthy. This whole thing! You can't keep your feelings bottled up forever. This sounds far-fetched, cliché, or whatever, but it is true: if you don't say something now, someone else will."

He didn't respond. He might've been waiting for something.

"_Well_?" She got into his face. Drew remained calm and collected. How did he do that?

"When?"

"Just tell her, or you're going to regret it. It doesn't matter if you're ready or not."

He didn't take that long to think, which was no surprise to her. He extended his hand.

"Deal."


End file.
